Actress Kristen Stewart is one of ELLE's five cover stars of the September 2016 issue. Read the full interview, and see the shoot, in the issue on sale August 3.

Liz Collins

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Kristen Stewart talks openly to ELLE UK about her recent projects, and how she overcame her anxiety issues to live a more honest and happy life.

On her recent projects and enjoying her work: 'I have a really strong sense of identity when I'm working. If I'm having a bad day or something personal, or existential, or hormonal – if anything brings me down, I'm lucky if I have to go to work that day. And it could be anything, it could be a photoshoot for Chanel."

On her positive outlook: 'I obviously hope everything going on right now will work out, but I am confident that life is good and I'll be OK whatever happens. So in moments when that is cloudy and I feel saturated and unable to engage in how good life can be, however consuming those feelings are, they are so momentary…I'm think pretty good at being happy.'

On her previous struggles with anxiety: 'I went through so much stress and periods of strife. I would have panic attacks…I literally always had a stomach ache. And I was a control freak and I couldn't anticipate what was going to happen in a given situation, so I'd be like, 'Maybe I'm going to get sick'... It's kind of remarkable. I just grew out of it, but that's not to say I don't get worried.'

Liz Collins

On her love for girlfriend Alicia Cargile: 'I think also right now I'm just really in love with my girlfriend. We've broken up a couple of times and gotten back together, and this time I was like, 'Finally, I can feel again.'

On being more open about her relationship: 'When I was dating a guy I was hiding everything that I did because everything personal felt like it was immediately trivialised, so I didn't like it. We were turned into these characters and placed into this ridiculous comic book, and I was like, 'That's mine. You're making my relationship something that it's not.' I didn't like that. But then it changed when I started dating a girl. I was like, 'Actually, to hide this provides the implication that I'm not down with it or I'm ashamed of it, so I had to alter how I approached being in public. It opened my life up and I'm so much happier.'

Kristen Stewart stars in Café Society, in cinemas 2 September. The September issue will be available on newsstands from 3 August.

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